LGBTQ+ Flags You Should Know About For Pride Month

Pride Month is held every June to celebrate the expansive LGBTQ+ community and honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City (via USA Today). The annual LGBTQ+ Pride Month events attract millions of participants from all around the world. Everyone knows the rainbow flag is the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag, created by artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker in 1978 (via The Gilbert Baker Foundation). However, it's not the only flag with which people in the community now have to connect. Ever since the first Pride Flag's inception, many others have been created by different genders, groups, and identities worldwide. But, did you know there are over 20 flags that represent a wide variety of sexualities, identities, and communities and offer a larger sense of inclusivity (via Volvo News)? We've listed some of the most common LGBTQ+ flags, so read on to learn more about their origins and meanings.

In 2018, Daniel Quasar, a non-binary artist and graphic designer, designed the Progress Pride flag, which has become the crest for the queer and transgender community of color. The black and brown stripes represent the LGBTQ+ communities of color that are often disregarded in addition to those living with HIV/AIDS or who passed away from the virus. The light blue, pink, and white stripes were used so that the trans flag would also be a part of the design. Quasar placed the black and brown stripes and the trans flag stripes to his flag's width so that they would form an arrow shape (via NEWNOWNEXT).

In an interview, Quasar shared why the flag is designed the way it is and revealed that the arrow points toward the rainbow flag to signify that while progress has been made in the LGBTQ+ community, much more advancement still exists and needs to happen. Quasar also shared that his redesign of the Pride Flag was essential because he "could bring something to the table when it came to the way the flag was shifting within the community" (via studenthighstreet.com).

In 2010, a flag dubbed the Lipstick Lesbian Flag was created by Natalie McCray. The banner featured shades of pink, white and red. However, many in the lesbian community had problems with it because they felt it only represented lipstick or femme lesbians (via heckin unicorn). Co-chair of the Committee on LGBT History, Chelsea Del Rio, while speaking with Women's Health Magazine, stated, "The concern was that it only represents femme-presenting lesbians" and excluded androgynous butch and non-femme lesbians. While several lesbian flags exist, the Lesbian Pride Flag created by Tumblr blogger Emily Gwen in 2018 has become rather popular in the last few years. 

The flag was designed to incorporate all lesbians, including trans lesbians, from across the range of identities. The flag's colors from top to bottom represent gender nonconformity, independence, community, unique relationships to womanhood, serenity, peace, love, sex, and femininity. In 2020, Gwen took to social media to thank supporters for embracing the updated creation and tweeted, "As of today, it's been 2 years since I first designed the orange and pink lesbian flag. Thank you so much for all the love I've been shown since then. The lesbian communities I'm a part of mean so much to me."

In 2010, a person by the name of Jasper designed the Pansexual Pride flag. The pink stripe symbolizes those who consider themselves feminine, the blue represents those who see themselves as masculine, and the yellow embodies all those who lie between those classifications. While chatting with Majestic Mess Designs, Jasper, who uses they/them pronouns, talked about what led to the flag's creation. They said they didn't feel like they identified with the term "bisexual." In 2010, when the word pansexual started to gain traction within the online LGBTQ+ communities, they found this more fitting. That's when they decided to design a flag. When asked how they felt knowing that the flag had become pretty visible worldwide, they stated, "Feels incredible. The first Pride I went to a few years ago where there were pansexual flags on display made me very emotional." At the end of the interview, they also advised the next generation who are thinking about creating their own flag and said they should be ready for good, bad, and lukewarm reactions. Jasper added, "If your hope is to have other people adopt it, it has to be something you don't want to change a year down the line."

In the summer of 2011, synth musician Marilyn Roxie created the genderqueer flag. During an interview with The Buzz, Roxie explained color choices and what they represented. Roxie stated, "Lavender is a color that has long been seen as queer. It also happens to be a mix of pink and blue, stereotypical girls' and boys' colors, so I've used it here to represent a blending of boyishness and girlishness as well. White is in the middle and represents a gender (without gender) or neutral gender identity. Green, the inverse of Lavender, the representation of identities beyond and without reference to the binary two. It is not to say that androgynes are the 'opposite' of any other genders any more than women are the opposite of men in some way — just showing different shades of identity in a combination I found harmonious." Roxie also shared that the flag came about from struggling with identity and finding out there wasn't a flag for genderqueer and non-binary communities at the time.

Staten Island native Salem X created the Agender Pride Flag in 2014. According to Rocky Mountain Flag, the black and white stripes on the flag symbolize an absence of gender, the gray represents semi-genderlessness, and the central green stripe represents those that have nonbinary genders. During a 2018 interview with Majestic Mess Designs, Salem X explained how the flag came about and shared that it was time for the genderless to have something of their own that wouldn't be a fad. She added that she "figured if there was a time to come up with a flag for genderless people, this was it!" Salem also noted that she was happy that the asexual flag ended up sticking in the community.

Elsewhere during the interview, Salem X also went in-depth about why she chose the colors for the flag and said, "The monochrome on the flag represents a spectrum of internal identities, from people who experience a strong feeling of gender, to those who experience no gender whatsoever." She then went on to say that the green stripe signified where agender would fall on the spectrum when it comes to the color blue, which represents male identities, and pink, which symbolizes females.

Unfortunately, little is known about the person or group that created the Queer People of Color flag. However, according to tripridetn.org, the flag began to circulate and gain recognition in 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. The flag symbolizes an intersection of all people of color in trans and queer communities that have faced and are still facing harassment and racism due to their sexuality. On the flag, the fist represents unity and support for all people in the LGBTQ+ communities, as well as defiance and resistance to being mistreated. Additionally, the fist has been designed in various skin tones because it embodies the marginalized racial groups with these different complexions. The QPOC flag may not be as popular as other flags, but we're sure that as time goes on, more and more people will be flying it around at Pride Parades and events worldwide.